Maine IFW Needs to Learn to Count Deer Harvest Like Kentucky

Why is it, I’ve asked countless times, that Maine takes at least 4 months from the end of deer hunting season to release deer harvest numbers? We hear some bullpucky about the collection of data, blah, blah, blah and by the time harvest numbers are out, most hunters are gearing up for fishing season and have mostly forgotten about the deer hunt.

The total harvest for the month of November won’t be known until the end of the month on Friday, Nov. 30. However, as of Wednesday, Nov. 28, a new record has already been reached. The 96,986 deer reported taken tops the previous record (89,498 deer taken in 2004) by 8.3 percent.

And this same information has been made available for September and October only hours after each days hunt.

Does Maine have something to hide or are they just embarrassed to death that there are so few deer? Kentucky will count close to 125,000 harvested deer this year and the day after all the seasons have concluded, they will have a count.

Maine will count perhaps 20,000-25,000 and take 4 or 5 months to do it. Why?